Ain't+I+a+Woman+and+After+Being+Convicted+of+Voting+in+the+1872+Presidential+election


 * Note from Ms. Shubert: Please check out the rubric on the rhetoric page. There is also a copy of the rhetoric directions.

[|Ain't I a Woman by Sojourner Truth]** About Sojourner Truth: http://youtube.com/watch?v=Fy0z3egS7L4 A short video about Sojourner Truth http://www.kyphilom.com/www/truth.html http://www.lkwdpl.org/wihohio/trut-soj.htm info about Truth and the speech Summary of Speech: //Ain’t I a Woman// was given by Soujourner Truth in 1851 at a Women’s convention in Akron, Ohio. She made the speech in response to the arguments of several ministers who were arguing against women’s rights at the convention. In it, she is questioning and disproving their arguments. She says that many men say women are weak and must be "helped into carriages, and lifted over ditches." In response, she claims she has never received any of this help from anyone, and has survived through the hardships of being a slave and is still a woman. She argues that intellect has nothing to do with human rights and disproves the argument that "women can’t have as much rights as men, ‘cause Christ wasn’t a woman"by saying that Christ came from a woman. She concludes her speech by saying that if the first women God ever made could "turn the world upside down all alone," then all women working together should be able to set things straight.

Rhetorical Devices used: SPAM: Sojourner Truth was born a slave in 1797 and escaped shortly after the New York anti slavery law of 1827. Her only education came from a Quaker family she lived with for a short time after being released from slavery. She often referred to her experiences as a slave and a black woman, and these experiences gave her credibility. She was a large woman standing nearly six feet tall. She was strong from working for many years as a slave and had a deep, booming voice. These physical aspects along with her witty and simple style of speaking made Sojourner Truth an extremely engaging and convincing speaker. Her strong feelings about the issues were apparent in the way she spoke. The speech was given to a large group of people at a women’s convention in order to disprove the arguments of men who were there speaking against women’s rights. She does this very effectively by addressing their points and immediately dismissing them with the use of logic. She also effectively uses ethos and pathos to support and strengthen her message. This audience was made up of women and men both for and against women’s rights. They were especially influenced by the speech because they heard the arguments of others that she was addressing. The majority of the audience was for women’s rights and the crowd had an extremely favorable reaction to Sojourner Truth and her words. The speech is meant to rally the audience against those who oppose women’s rights and prove them wrong. This message is without question best delivered in the form of a speech. Sojourner Truth had very little education and was illiterate so a written message was out of the question. Her strengths were her large size, deep voice, and to the point style of speaking. All of these strengths are evident and best portrayed through a speech. All of these factor contribute to the effectiveness of the message.
 * Speaker (Who is the speaker? How is this significant? How does their background, time, place, etc. influence how and what they speak about)
 * Purpose (What is the purpose of this speech? What is the speaker trying to do? Why? What are they using to achieve their purpose? Three appeals? Rhetorical devices?)
 * Audience (Who is the audience? Where and when are they? Why is the speaker talking to THIS audience? How does this audience affet how the message is received? What is the audience supposed to get out of it?)
 * Medium (How is the message communicated? a speech How does this impact the message?)

Class Themes (Understanding of major ideas as a reflection of the American Voice--think of course concepts): The obvious theme in this speech is the idea of the American dream, equality and the words "all men are created equal." Sojourner Truth is fighting for the rights and equality she believes she is given to her and all Americans by the US constitution. She is fighting for women's rights as well as the rights of African Americans. She wants to achieve the American dream of freedom and equality and the right to have a voice in the government.

[|**After being convicted of voting in the 1872 presidential election by Susan B. Anthony**] About Susan B. Anthony:http://youtube.com/watch?v=CtDPZudU0ek A brief biography of Susan B. Anthony http://www.history.rochester.edu/class/sba/first.htm http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/anthony/sbaaccount.html

Summary of Speech:In this speech Susan B. Anthony is addressing people in and around Rochester, New York, in the time before her trial. She was, as the title of the speech says, convicted of voting in the 1872 presidential election. She gave the speech multiple times before the trial in an attempt to not only raise awareness about women's rights but to try and gain support for potential jurors in her pending trial. The speech begins with her giving a brief overview of her situation and her goal she is trying to accomplish. She then quotes directly from the constitution and explains how she interprets that to give voting rights to all americans including women. She goes on to say how the government is becoming an oligarchy and a select few hold the power. She ends by asking "are women persons?" in order to bring her argument together in a strong way.

Rhetorical Devices:

"The Preamble of the Federal Constitution says" - Allusion to United States Constitution

"It was __we__ the people, not __we__, the white male citizens; nor yet __we__ the male citizens but __we__ the whole people who formed the union. and __we__ formed it not to give the blessings of liberty" - asyndeton

Paragraph 6 "to them...to them" - Anaphora

"Are women persons?" - rhetorical question SPAM: Class Themes: The theme in this speech is also the idea of the American dream, equality and the words "all men are created equal." Susan B. Anthony is fighting for the rights and equality she believes she is given to her and all Americans by the US constitution. She is fighting for women's rights and uses direct quotes and references to the constitution, which she believes gives her the right to vote that the government is trying to withold from her. She wants to achieve the American dream of freedom and equality.
 * Speaker- February 15, 1820 - March 13, 1906 in Massachusetts, Susan b.Anthony, advocate for women's rights, gave 75-100 speeches a year on women's rights, was refused a normal childhood, in school was refused to be taught long division, saw light of women's movement for her "at home" school teacher mary perkins.
 * Purpose- advocating women's rights and in specific the right to vote after she was accused of voting unlawfully (without the right to do so).
 * Audience- Citizens of New York, men and women.
 * Medium- Told through a speech with alot of factual information and an enormous amount of pathos.